Solar Battery Charger
Batteries are meant to go anywhere. And In our on-the-go world, we love batteries. They are in our phones, our GPS, our cameras and our watches. But too often they don’t last, and we are left standing their like an Amish man, holding our dead piece of technology.
Ideally, batteries would never run out.
Well, so far, that isn’t an option. What is an option is the solar battery charger.
Solar battery chargers make sense. Batteries go everywhere? So does the sun. Batteries die when there is no power source available to recharge on? Chances are the sun is probably pretty close by.
And sure, we can discuss the added benefits of recharging your batteries in times of natural disasters when there is no other power source, but let’s face the real truth:
Wouldn’t it be great to just be able to recharge your batteries anywhere?
- Types of Solar Battery Chargers
In reality, all solar cells — even home solar power setups — are used simply to charge batteries for later use of that energy. But here is a review of some types of chargers used for common small battery setups.
Solar battery charges come in many sizes. To begin with you have the basic AAA, AA, C, D chargers that are patterned after their AC power counterparts. These chargers typically have some sort of battery tester built in, and many can also use either USB or AC power as a backup power source.
With so many non-standard batteries being used — such as those in cell phones and mp3 players — Many of these basic chargers (like the one pictured at the top) include the connections necessary to recharge these other devices as well
Unlike many solar battery chargers, these chargers do not typically have a reserve battery built into them
I have written a more indepth review article on these types of chargers over here, and also reviewed a ruggedized solar battery charger over here in the mobile power solutions section.
In my opinion, these are the ultimate geek-out-coolest-thing-ever. A new and novel idea, each backpack has their own take on charging your small portable devices. Typically, they include a Lithium-ion battery that can be charged at leisure with ab out 4 hours of sunlight, and then used to power your cell phones, GPS and Mp3 players. To add flexibility, many of these backpacks include AC, USB and 12v car charging cords to allow for recharging your devices even on cloudy days. (So far, very few of these devices offer the power to charge a laptop computer.)
And nothing else says “cool” like a solar-powered backpack, right?
Ok, so these are just plain sweet. I can never get enough laptop juice. And there never seems to be enough plugins in the world where I need them to be. Not even at the coffeshops.
These chargers are designed for computers but are a souped-up cell phone charger as well. If you had mobile internet from your cell-phone provider and this laptop charger, you might never need to see civilization ever again. (Except to visit a coffeeshop, of course)
When I was a kid, my grandfather had a boat and a motorcycle, both of which only saw limited use throughout the year. In order to keep their batteries charged, he kept them plugged into trickle chargers that slowly added power any time one of the batteries lost some of it’s mojo.
Whenever you stepped into his shop at night you could hear the chargers humming. (Frankly, I think his batteries were probably overcharged. ) Well, now you can keep those batteries fresh, and these solar chargers are actually cheaper than what you would spend for a conventional trickle charger.
The premise of these chargers are very simple. Put them in the sun, hook them to the battery. Let them keep the battery fresh until you need it again.
Just unlike my grandfather, you won’t have to run up your electric bill.
If not, please leave it in the comments! I'd be thrilled to research your question for you!
